Mediafire Vs Mega

These two services offer something quite similar in terms of cloud storage in that neither actually syncs the data on your computer; instead you upload data to a remote space and download it again or share the links with others. This is quite different from Dropbox which syncs all or selected folders across devices. The following comparison looks at a paid MediaFire account vs a free Mega one. Not entirely fair but one way to do it.

Value for Money

No contest really Mega offers 50GB of free storage while Mediafire offers 10GB rising to 50GB if you sign people or use certain apps. If you want to upgrade then again Mega is cheaper per GB of space. Mediafire however offers to carry over unused bandwidth to the next month; the basic paid plan comes with 1TB per month. For free accounts neither list what the monthly bandwidth limits on their plan summary pages. So it is difficult to know what is on offer.

Speed

Here in Luxembourg Mediafire is by far the slowest cloud storage space I have used, upload speeds seem to be capped at 1.5mbps even on paid accounts, on the other hand Mega free is much faster even on free accounts. Download speed are also much better on Mega. Mediafire speed issues seem to apply regardless of which network I use (update: since the start of June 2013 the download speeds seem to have improved and are now about 10mbps).

Files

Free Mediafire accounts severely limit file size, Mega does not. Paid accounts on MedaFire limit files to 10GB. FIle uploading via websites in both cases worked well, although the MediaFire express App often appears unstable and buggy but it is in Beta. Right now Mega offers no official client apps although some unofficial ones are available on Android.

Features

Right now Mega offers little more than space and bandwidth if you pay, although you can set up photo albums. If you decide to pay for Mediafire you get some nice features which are not available on Mega (or only under limited conditions). Namely, one time file downloads, password protected files and the ability to download entire directories. The latter is only available to other registered users of Mega or if you share a folder specific public key (which may confuse some people). You can also set up a filedrop on Mediafire which lets people upload files to your account.

As noted MediaFire offers a desktop app, this has some nice features such as being able directly upload via the context menus on your computer or dragging and dropping files directly onto the pop-up uploader.

Security

On the face of it Mega wins throughout on this feature, however if you forget your password say goodbye to your data as you cannot get a new one! Mega claims that you and only the people you share your key with can decrypt your files.They also claim that as they do not store your key that your also have some degree of enhanced privacy. Assuming this all works as described then the service is far more secure than most other cloud providers, however there is some debate on how secure Mega really is. Paid account holders on Mediafire can upload encrypted files.

Usability

Mega wins here on almost every level, while Medafire is hardly difficult to use it has some confusing ways of doing things. Also Mediafire makes uploading files in nested directory structures a very cumbersome task. Mega on the other hand makes this a doddle.

Extras

Mediafire offers an office environment called Zoho, however this is being phased out. Frankly that is a good thing but it will be interesting to see what will replace it. Due to the speed of Mega I also found it a good service for streaming movies on my Android tablet. Mediafire struggled a bit even on a small 10mb file – the Jewish Memorial one on this website.

Usage on Space Limited Devices

Tablets are great but they do have rather limited space and Google Drive for example seems to refuse to even let me see file names when the directory has more data than the device can handle. Here both Mediafire and Mega are great as they don’t actually download the files to your device (unless you tell them to). This means you can view files and stream media directly without having to download entire directories and thus taking up space. It also means both services are great for archiving infrequently used data which you may need access to but which you don’t need to keep synced on your device. In this case it’s a tie, especially on mobile devices.

Trust

Who would you trust with your data? Mega sadly has a far lower feeling of trust about it, mainly due to who is behind it (Kim Dotcom). MediaFire has a longer track record, has been used by reputable companies but like all sharing sites has perhaps unfairly been criticised for hosting pirated content uploaded by it’s users in the past.

Summary

If you need features then Mediafire is probably the platform for you. For speed and security Mega wins. I’d pick Mega if you want something simple for non-essential data, if you need to trust your cloud provider a bit more then pick Mediafire.

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About Rod McCall

Rod McCall is a researcher in the field of human-computer interaction in areas such as augmented reality, mobile gaming in-car systems and virtual environments. He has a passing interest in economics after not being entirely convinced by the rubbish presented as fact during lectures on that particular subject while at uni.

4 Responses to Mediafire Vs Mega

Value for Money
Mediafire is cheaper. 10 euros per month for MEGA for 500GB storage, compared to 1000GB storage for 4 euros on Mediafire. Besides now there is 50% discount on mediafire.

Speed
Same for both.

Files
File limit? I can’t find any info about MEGA on this one. but doesnt mega also limit file size?

Features
Mediafire definitely.

Security
Both are very good actually.
btw, what the hell is that key for MEGA.

Usability
Mediafire confusing? dude you haven’t even bothered to use it.
I’ve been using mediafire for about 6-7 years and it hasn’t changed much.

Extras
Does anyone really care about these things?

Usage on Space Limited Devices
Mobile app and you are good to go.

Trust
I use both and I prefer MediaFire, I can see more stats about my account, like the downloads served, total bandwidth achieved, times a certain file has been downloaded. The new filedrop folder. wow a ton of things mediafire is better at.

Thanks for your comments. The review was written prior to the new Mediafire pricing model, I can update it later. As for your other comments, I like the Mediafire features (which is the reason I continue to pay for it) however the speeds where I live for uploading in particular are currently very limited. This seems to also be a problem for users in the UK (just do a quick Google). I have been in touch with Mediafire’s technical support and they seem unable to provide a solution to the problem. I have sent various traceroutes etc and there always seems to be some kind of connectivity issue somewhere. It may or may not be their fault but it does not seem to have an impact on other cloud storage providers.

As for usability, in general it is not as clean and simple as other file sharing providers however this is in part due to some of the extra features.

If they could fix the upload rate which is a problem either on the web or via their client then this would be a great service.